Digital graphic design, image editing, audio editing, and video editing applications (hereinafter collectively referred to as media content editing applications or media editing applications) provide graphical designers, media artists, and other users with the necessary tools to create a variety of media content. Examples of such applications include Final Cut Pro® and iMovie®, both sold by Apple Computer, Inc. These applications give users the ability to edit, combine, transition, overlay, and piece together different media content in a variety of manners to create a resulting media project. The resulting media project specifies a particular sequenced composition of any number of text, audio clips, images, or video content that is used to create a media presentation.
Various media editing applications facilitate such composition through electronic means. Specifically, a computer or other electronic device with a processor and computer readable storage medium executes the media content editing application. In so doing, the computer generates a graphical interface whereby designers digitally manipulate graphical representations of the media content to produce a desired result.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical graphical user interface (“GUI”) 100 of a media editing application used in creating a composite media presentation based on several media clips. As shown in this figure, the GUI 100 includes a composite display area 105 and tool palette 110 that has various tool selection buttons. On several tracks that span a timeline, the composite display area can display many rectangles that represent many media clips that are used to create a composite media presentation.
One difficulty in media editing is the frequency at which a user switches tools to perform editing different tasks. For example, a user may switch among four trim tools, such as a roll trim tool, a ripple trim tool, a slip trim tool, and a slide trim tool, dozens of times per minute while editing media clips on the tracks in the composite display area. Consequently, the user is required to look back and forth between tool palette 110 and composite display area 105 while selecting the appropriate tools and applying the editing operations to the clips in the composite display area.
Accordingly, there is a need for a media editing application that provides a GUI element for a user to select among several editing tools without needing to select a tool from outside the composite display area.
Another difficulty in electronic media editing, as compared with manual manipulation of film in mechanical editing, is the loss of information regarding the physical dimensions of the media content that is being edited.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical representation of media content on tracks 200. Source media 210 represents a media file having a video component and one or more audio components. Source media 210 is inserted into tracks 200 to form a composite media presentation. A media editing application may split source media into its individual video and audio components, and place each of the components, also referred to as clip elements, into separate tracks, such as video track VI and audio track A1 as shown in FIG. 2. A user may include the whole length of source media 210, or include only a portion. The included portion is referred to as a clip. The portion is delineated by setting edit points 220-221 that define the beginning and the end of the clip. The portion of source media 210 that is inserted into tracks 200 is represented as clip shapes 230-231. Clip shape 230 corresponds to the inserted video clip element, and clip shape 231 corresponds to the inserted audio clip element. Once inserted into tracks 200, the portions of source media 210 that are not included, shown in FIG. 2 as shaded areas, are not displayed or indicated along track 200.
When performing editing operations on clips in tracks 200, edit points 220-221 may be adjusted to extend or to shorten media from the beginning or the end of the clip elements. Edit point 220 can be adjusted from within tracks 200. However, because the shaded areas are not displayed or indicated along track 200, the user is provided with no information regarding where boundaries of source media 210 lie.
Information regarding source media boundaries is useful in helping the user to determine the available range of editing operations as the operations are performed in tracks 200. Without such information, the user does not know how much of the source media remains to be included until, for example, when performing the roll edit operation, the cursor is arrested when the cursor reaches a boundary that is not visible to a user.
There is a need for a media editing application to indicate to the user the location of a media boundary before the cursor reaches the boundary while editing within a composite display area.